Messages - Defengar

Listened to this when it first came out. Wanted to pop in and say it was great! It cleared up a couple things for me. I foresee this (and especially the transcribed version) being a great resource for the Berserk community in future.

Been playing A LOT of World of Warships the last couple years. I'm a big naval history fan, which unfortunately is a niche mostly ignored by the gaming industry. This game is really the only decent option if you want to play around in multiplayer battles in notable 20th century naval vessels like the USS Iowa, IJN Yamato, Bismark, Warspite, etc... It's by the same studio who makes World of Tanks, so it has a good amount of polish, and regular content updates. There are multiple lines from different nations of aircraft carriers, battleships, heavy cruisers, light cruisers, and destroyers. Recently they have also released PVE scenarios, which offer a nice change of pace.

The recent podcast talked a bit about Götz von Berlichingen; a knight who lived 500 years ago and shared several similarities to Guts. In addition to the first name thing, he was a famous mercenary, commander, and most notably of all, a metal prosthetic hand!

The one on the left was the prototype, the right one was the final product actually used by him.

edit: for some reason I am not able to post picture properly like you guys (not enough posts?), but there are links.

Ever heard of Pier Gerlofs Donia? He's a character of history from about 500 years ago who lived in Germany during a civil war between noble families. One day while away, his village was sacked by a notoriously brutal mercenary company named The Black Band. His wife was raped and killed, but his children survived. Upon returning to this scene he became enraged at the injustice of it all, but what was a peasant to do in such circumstances? Well Pier was not a normal peasant... The man was seven feet tall and absurdly physically strong. He sent his children to safety, went to a nearby city, got a HUGE sword, got together a bunch of followers, and led a peasant revolt that became part of the greater civil war.

One historian's description of him (he sounds like someone Guts could get along with quite well!): "A tower of a fellow as strong as an ox, of dark complexion, broad shouldered, with a long black beard and moustache. A natural rough humorist, who through unfortunate circumstances was recast into an awful brute. Out of personal revenge for the bloody injustice that befell him (in 1515) with the killing of kinsfolk and destruction of his property he became a freedom fighter of legendary standing."

One of two swords alleged to have been owned by him. It's seven feet long and 14 pounds. If legit, it would be the largest known sword ever wielded in battle. Allegedly he once killed several men with a single stroke.

A couple years ago Netflix released an original movie called "Beasts of No Nation". In my opinion it was easily one of the best movies that year, and it has stuck with me ever since. It follows the story of a young boy in an ambiguous sub-Saharan African country who ends up as a child soldier in a conflict with no real end. Quite a few of the things that happen to him bear a stark similarity to what Guts went through during his time growing up as a child of war.

Cary Fukunaga (director of the first season of True Detective) was both the writer and director. The performances are top notch; Idris Elba plays a major character (similar in many ways to Gambino), and the main child actors great. It's one of the most moving and emotionally exhausting cinematic experiences I have ever had.

Age 21, six foot two, large frame. I've been very overweight since elementary school. I ate horribly and was a couch potato most of the time. My parents and doctor hounded me about losing weight for years, but I just didn't have the motivation to do better. Looking back, I was almost certainly suffering from depression issues (gotten help with that since going to college). Things didn't truly "click" for me about what a bad road I was putting myself on until late 2015 when I went on a hike with my dad on some very sloped terrain, and on the uphill back I nearly collapsed. Went in for a checkup soon after and the scale read 342 pounds. I immediately thought "342 is almost 350, and if I hit 350, eventually I'm going to probably hit 400, and that's a death sentence at half the age I would probably live to if I was healthy." Something else that helped stimulate me to change was the fact I was starting to have trouble finding clothes at regular stores that would fit well.

Due to ongoing motivation issues I have not made progress at the pace I should, but it is progress, and I am getting better every month. I almost never drink soda anymore (drinking way more water), I eat better meals during the week, don't binge on weekends as much as I used to, snack way less (vaping has helped a lot with that), walk/ride my bike to class usually instead of taking the bus, and I joined a dodge ball club at the gym last semester that meet for 2-3 hours twice a week. Proud to say that I'm down to under 300 pounds again for the first time since early high school. I'm going to have to buy new pants soon because mine are starting to sag a bit even when wearing a belt!

I have better stamina, my posture has improved, I look noticeably better, blood pressure is better, and I definitely feel like I "take up less space" than I used to. Working towards losing a further 60+ pounds in the long term. God knows when I was last at 250.

The one "silver lining" I have noted from being very overweight is that it made my legs strong as hell. A healthy person is supposed to be able to leg press around three times their body weight. I have always been able to do that or nearly so lol.

Dunno about the final battle, but I think that the last page will show Guts and Casca sitting on a hill together watching the sun rise over the ruins of Falconia. Guts will have been heavily wounded during the battle, and it will be left up to the audience to decide whether to believe he dies in Casca's arms on the hill, or survives and him and Casca live together for the rest of their lives happy and in peace.

What Ganishka did wasn't a sacrifice. And what you propose doesn't sound very likely -- Griffith would rule over the... what, 5% left of the planet's population? That doesn't sound like a doable endgame for Berserk.

I think it would be very limiting, if not misleading, to subscribe to that way of thinking about these supernatural beings in a fantasy story. Were they once human? Certainly, but I think their lack of empathy for others doesn't weigh as heavily on their motivations as all the other factors at play.

Meaning... what? That he has to abide by that character's arc?

Ruling over the remnants of humanity is inconsequential compared to ruling the laws of reality on Earth. Ever read "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream"?

As for what I mean, I mean I think that the very existence and ruling of humans is probably inconsequential to him compared to his new goals in the long run. New "subjects" would be trivial to create if he transcends to a state of borderline omnipotence. If you are God, does it really matter that you banish countless millions of Angels and souls to Hell? Absolutely not. Also there is nothing wrong in drawing parallels between characters in fiction that bear similarities.

What I'm wondering about the God Hand members now that they are in the physical world (or soon to be) is : will they keep their god hand look but with a physical presence or are they gonna turn like Femto/Griffith aka hiding in a human shell?

Griffith :" These are my new advisers..."

I personally think that Griffith will be the only one looking human. But I got curious about it.

I don't think the world (ours or Berserk's lol) can handle a Slan in human form.

If Falconia, and thus its residents, are merely a stepping stone for him transcending the God Hand, then why would they make valid sacrifices...? Particulary if you regard him as a sociopath (he's not -- he's a demigod who shed his emotions), it wouldn't work by the rules of what makes a sacrifice.

I mean, there's always the chance that there are other ways of going about sacrificing, especially on this scale. Did anyone see the Ganishka thing coming? That was like watching the end of 2001 Space Odyssey! Also if he kills almost all of mankind, the idea of evil (if it's even still a thing) would become massively diminished. A spiritual power vacuum could potentially happen that Griffith sees himself as filling...

Falconia is just a stepping stone? Jesus, Griffith is the most powerful being on Earth with his own kingdom and demon army. How much further can he go? Is there even a world left worth conquering?

Griffith, like many conquerors of history, is not satisfied after accomplishing his initial aims, and with his transformation, he is essentially an inhuman sociopath wearing a facade on top of that.

My theory is that his goal now is to use Falconia as a giant sacrificial altar to achieve even greater power; sacrificing almost the entire rest of the human species (and maybe even his army of Apostles) during a third eclipse event in order to transcend the God Hand, to become a true "god" himself that can wield omnipotent power over reality and magic.

Best episode so far... but honestly that really, really isn't saying much. It does give me a glimmer of hope for the rest of the series though. Hopefully the next episode will be just as decent; I think that's all we can really hope for. If it's even better, then my expectations will be blown, and this may actually turn out to be a decent series overall (really just the last two thirds).

For as many issues as the 97 series had, at least it had leagues better pacing than this (among other things...). I would also rather they use the 97 series' cost saving tactic of using decent looking stills instead of this tripe, already dated looking CGI.

Currently almost exclusively playing World of Warships. It's the first good 20th century setting multiplayer naval game in YEARS, and I am enjoying the hell out of it. I'm a real lover of history, so getting to play the Iowa, Nagato, and even the mighty Yamato is a treat every time. It's a different experience from any other multiplayer vehicle combat game I have ever played, even World of Tanks plays pretty different. Most matches are 12 vs 12, each time is a mixture of battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and sometimes aircraft carriers. The first couple minutes are generally about everyone trying to maneuver into position and you won't even see an enemy ship. Then once contact is made, all hell can break loose. Battleships tanking damage left and right and dishing out pain with massive armor piercing shells, cruisers trying to set everything on fire with high explosive shells, destroyers sneaking around to deploy waves of torpedoes, etc... Sometimes it's frustrating, but unless matchmaking really screws you over, you will always be able to do something of value in a match and have some fun. And then there are those moments you live for, when you get on an unstoppable streak of destruction and leave multiple sinking ships in your wake...

I'm mostly playing American and Japanese cruisers, battleships, and destroyers. Can't wait for the German Battleship line to get released in a month or two! The Bismark will be mine!

I was more referring to the amount of real life time that it took for the arc to complete, not so much their pace (which I personally had no issue with). I will say however that while I enjoyed it, the boat arc did feel more "filler-ish" than any other to me, which is pretty reminiscent of A Dance With Dragons. Martin was originally going to do a two year time skip and go straight to The Winds of Winter, but eventually decided that to much information would be left unknown to readers (among other things) if that occurred. So he wrote ADWD which took several years... then threw it out and started over again, and several more years passed before it was published and asoiaf fans were left with what was certainly a decent addition to the series, but arguably the most lackluster (generally fans are split between ADWD and A Feast For Crows being "the worst"). Now several years have gone by and there are no solid signs that George is going to be ending his hiatus any time soon, and Miura just started another one of significant length.

And then to boot, Berserk is soon getting what will probably be a lackluster show adaptation, and the upcoming GoT season will probably be the worst one because the show writers have finally passed up the books and are probably not going to come even close to doing the story justice like Martin can.

I started reading the manga about 2 years ago, so thankfully I didn't have to deal with the age of boat as much as most around here did. I kind of know how it must have felt though. I've been a big fan of the asoiaf series for much, much longer, and Martin and Miura seem to have some things in common in concern to meeting fan expectations on time tables.

I like to read historical fiction and non fiction, fantasy, manga, and to play video games; generally lots of RPG's, RTS and FPS's.

For many years I was an avid coin collector, however that has basically transitioned into silver stacking. Watching the price of silver multiply while so many other investments seemed to tumble during the recession had quite an impact on me. Gonna be ready next time!

Recently I also started getting into vaping. It's taken the edge off of some stress I have been dealing lately and it's not even close to being as expensive or unhealthy as smoking.